Category: CONSERVATION

WPE – Active conservation of Flora & Fauna

Our worlds biological diversity is in peril. Industrialization, overpopulation and the greed of many people are a huge threat. Never in history so many species were in imminent danger of extinction. Within a period of a century, the species Homo sapiens has led the world to the brink of collapsing our planet earth.

We are big and powerful. Our species has existed on this planet for a very long time and once there were many of us. We are intelligent and our language is very complex. The animals that walk upright on two legs do not understand that. We feel happiness, sorrow and pain. We are very big and have enourmous apetites.

We are happy when we are left alone and wish no harm on others. We are vegetarian.

We are now very sad. Our environment is shrinking and there is not enough food left for us. Man attacks us with stones and loud firecrackers, he shoots holes in our sensitive hides, this causes us great pain and anger. Some of my kind are angered to the extent that they see the “twoleggers” as the enemy that must be killed. We never had need to kill before.

Have we no more right to live on this planet?

For a true nature lover there is no bigger Adventure than observing one herd of wild elephants in the wild. After the size in the most true sense of the word it concerns with the elephant, nevertheless, the most imposing land living being of the world.

Elephants in Central Africa are still being hunted because of their tusk. Another big problem is the consumption and trading of bushmeat. The most affected in Cameroon are the forest elphants.

In last years in South Africa there has been increase in the number of elephants due to Government protection. This has led to the limit of space for these elephants thus Government has authorised for the hunting in othere to create space.The situation in Central Africa is very critical. Today, only a few National parks still have herds of elephants to see.

Elephants in Sri Lanka

The elephant in Sri Lanka is the biggest Asian subspecies, Elephus maximus, besides, however, possibly about one third smaller than its African relative.

The elephant population in Asia has shrunk tremendeously in the last number of years. The main reason for this is the human overpopulation and the resulting destruction of natural wildlife habitat.

Despite shrinking population, it is possible to encounter a herd of one hundred or more elephants. This is an impressive experience.

Yet the entire elephant population was drastically reduced wih the onset of the British governance in Sri Lanka.

The British viewed the shooting of elephants as a kind of sport. This alone cost countless elephants lives. Even today, the killing of elephants appeales to some as an heroic act.

Elephants where considered a menace to agriculture. Farmes where even equipped with rifles to further decrice the elephant population. In the mountain region of Sri Lanka, the elephants were alsmost complitely extinct in order to grow tea and coffee.

In 1800 the population of the elephants was estimated to be 12,000 to 14,000 elephants. In 1920 this number had dropped to 7,000 to 8,000 animals. In 1999 the estimation dropped even further to 4,000 living elephants. Today, it is estimated that there are only 2,500 to 3,000 of these magnificent alimals still alive.

Formerly, Sri Lanka was almost entirely rainforest. Today, there is almost nothing left of the rainforest. The Sinharaja Nationalpark is the only noteworthy rainforest that is left. The Nationalpark is protected by UNESCO. Yet it is too small to provide a natural habitat for elephants as well as the Gibbon Apes. The Gibbons are considred extict in Sri Lanka. The elephants live in Skri Lanka’s veld and savannah region.

Less than 10% of male Asian elephants bear ivory. In African species, the females also wear tusks. As a result, we now hardly find males with tusk in Sri Lanka’s wild. The few that still exist, of course, by poaching are particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, means that the genes of male elephants without tusks unnatural enforce.

In recent years, the situation of gray giant continues to deteriorate dramatically. The war calls for its victims not only among the people. Elephants are injured and killed by Land- and Claymore mines. The tourists who otherwise finances in the national parks, has remain.

Main projects of the government are resettlement programmes for elephants. The animals are stunned at night, by truck in other areas, and awake totally confused in their new habitat. As a result, the elephants fight each other because the populations, in most cases, are too high. Enclosures are limited with an electric fence.

The elephant with the big Tusk lives no more. He, too, was victim of the people. With the big proud Tusker I had three photo shoots, were I come very close to the grey giant . Accidentally shot by an armed Home Guard. Self-rescue attempts of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Department could not prevent the painful end of the gentle elephant.

The dead elephant in the photo was shot at dawn just for fun. He also was not immediately dead but died slow and painful over several hours.

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Big anthropoids, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and other species like the grassland porcupine locally called Hérrisson in cameroon is one of the most hunted specie around the Mbam division of the centre province.It can easilly be found on sale on the Yaounde-Bafoussam high way precisely at Makenene bus stop;The number of this specie has greatly reduced as was comfirmed the killer of this one seen on the picture.”today you can spent the whole day in the bush and you cannot find one…” he said. are endangered to become extinct – some of them more, others less.

Despite of that, in the equatorial forests of Central and Western Africa they are hunted and then killed and traded as food.

This problem is commonly known under the name bushmeat, which means meat of wild animals. No other thing, should one think, as to hunt and eat red deer, roebuck or wild boar in our home forests.

But the situation is different.

Maybe, if bushmeat hunting would be limited and only done by the people living in the forests, the problem might eventually not be too serious.

However, there is an army of about 1,000 commercial bushmeat hunters roaming through the rain forests of Central Africa and shooting hell for leather. This resulted in a butchering worth an estimate of 2 billion dollars only last year. Amongst the animals killed were about 8,000 of the endangered big apes and other animals figuring on the list of endangered species.<

Bushmeat is a highly paid exports article. People are willing to pay high premiums to be able to eat big apes. The number of animals affected exceeds the number of animals living in zoos and laboratories worldwide.

If the butchering continues at the same speed as actually, the remaining wild apes of Africa will be extinct within the next 15 to 50 years. With them, major part of the equatorial rain forests and the cultures of the tribes who have been living there for thousands of years will disappear.

If we wish to put an end to the slaughtering of protected and endangered species, we urgently need projects aiming to effectively instruct the people in these countries and to change their minds and thinking. It is necessary to show them that there are other possibilities and alternatives.

The environmental protection needs to be commercialized. Ecological tourism, just as one example, can demonstrate to the people living near the rain forests that it is worth to protect floral and animal life instead of destroying it. People involved in trading and exporting must be prosecuted and threatened with heavy sentences.

Time has come that those of us who are concerned about the survival, the well-being and the future – if there is any – of the rain forests, the apes and the life in Africa in general, that those of us who criticize now start to go into action. It is not enough to look at the TV screen and to enjoy the movies and reports about fauna and flora of Africa. Anyway, most of the movies existing today are old and no longer actual.

WPE has now launched various projects in Kamerun with the target to change the situation as described above. WPE is working hand in hand with other organizations and with all the people who want to deal with this problem. The Kamerun network of teachers and students, for example, is actively co-operating with the residents to find solutions for the problems in their country.

We will continue to highlight the bushmeat problem here on this website by placing new articles and photo documentations.

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Our worlds biological diversity is in peril. Industrialization, overpopulation and the greed of many people are a huge threat. Never in history so many species were in imminent danger of extinction. Within a period of a century, the species Homo sapiens has led the world to the brink of collapsing our planet earth.

Organizations and citizens are responding to the biodiversity crisis through conservation action plans that direct research, monitoring, and education programs that engage concerns at local through global scales.

WPE focuses primarily preventive measures such as environmental education projects. Moreover, a very powerful tool against nature destruction is a socially and ecologically oriented tourism. It is need to offer people solutions in the form of education and job creation.